Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
METHOD FOR CONTACTING A SUBSCRIBER TO MULTIPLE
WIRELESS BEARER SERVICES
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a method for contacting a subscriber to
several different wireless bearer services at a wireless communicator when the
wireless communicator can only be active on one bearer service at a time.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As the availability and use of wireless communication services continues to
expand and devices have become available that can transmit and receive on
several
different kinds of wireless networks, it has become commonplace for individual
wireless users to subscribe to more than one wireless service for use with a
single
wireless communicator. These wireless communication bearer services transmit
and
receive using different formats and methods of transmission. Due to these
differences
between the bearer services and physical limitations of the wireless
communication
device itself, the wireless communicator generally can only be active on a
single
bearer service at any given time. This becomes a problem when a connection or
message to the subscriber is desired because it is impossible to know what
bearer
service to use to reach the subscriber.
One solution to this problem is to have the wireless communication device
notify or register with a central server whenever it changes to a different
bearer service
and that central server can direct any incoming messages or connection
requests to use
the proper bearer service. This approach has several drawbacks. First, it
requires
additional functionality in the wireless communicator to provide support for
the
registration function. It also results in increased network traffic and the
need for a
channel to be opened between the wireless communicator and central server
every
time the subscriber changes the bearer service setting on the wireless
communicator.
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SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an improved method for contacting the
wireless communicator of a subscriber who uses multiple bearer services. When
a
message delivery request is received, a first wireless bearer service is
selected from
the group of bearer services that the subscriber uses, and a delivery is
attempted on
that bearer service. If no response is received from the wireless communicator
after a
certain amount of time has elapsed, a second bearer service is selected and a
delivery
is attempted on that bearer service. The process is repeated until a delivery
is
successful or until all of the subscriber's bearer services have been
attempted without
success.
The present invention presents a solution to the problem of contacting a
wireless user who subscribes to several bearer services that does not require
additional
functionality in the communicator or a registration connection every time the
subscriber switches bearer services.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 illustrates a wireless network such as may be used with an embodiment
of the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating one possible implementation of the method
of
the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
In an embodiment shown in Fig. 1, the method of the present invention is
triggered by receipt at central server 102 of a message delivery request from
network
101 to wireless communicator 103. Network 101 could be the Public Switched
Telephone Network (PSTN), the Internet, a Private Branch Exchange (PBX), or
any
other communication network. The message received by central server 102
contains
information identifying a particular individual who subscribes to multiple
bearer
services. Using this identifying information, central server 102 retrieves a
list of the
subscriber's bearer services from database 107. Bearer service 1D4 is selected
from
the list and central server 102 transmits a message delivery request over
bearer service
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104 to attempt to contact wireless communicator 103. If wireless communicator
103
is active on bearer service 104, it will respond to the message delivery
request and
central server 102 can complete the desired delivery from network 101. After a
certain amount of time elapses with no response from wireless communicator
103,
central server 102 will select bearer service 105 from the list and attempt a
message
delivery over bearer service 105 to wireless communicator 103. If wireless
communicator 103 is active on bearer service 105, it will respond to the
message
delivery request and central server 102 can complete the desired delivery from
network 101. If wireless communicator 103 is not active on bearer service 105,
after a
certain amount of time elapses central server 102 will timeout the attempt and
select
bearer service 106 from the list. The process of attempting message delivery
repeats
for each of the bearer services that a user has subscribed to until wireless
communicator 103 is successfully contacted or all of the bearer services in
the list
have been attempted and wireless communicator 103 has failed to respond on any
of
them.
If all of the attempts fail, then the process may start over with the first
bearer
service in the list, the message delivery request may be stored to attempt a
delivery at
a future time, or server 102 can simply notify the requester that the
subscriber is
unreachable. The determination of what post-failure procedure to implement may
also be dependent on the type of message delivery attempted. For example, a
request
for an email message or fax may be stored for later transmittal, while a
request for an
urgent page may be tried continuously, and a request for a voice connection
may be
routed to a voice mail system. A stored message delivery request could also be
sent
the next time the subscriber connects to a bearer service in order to place a
call.
The message delivery request that is received may take many forms, such as a
paging message to be transmitted to the subscriber, a computer generated
information
message such as a stock quote or a sports score, a message indicating an
update to the
subscriber's schedule, contact list/address book or other Personal Information
Manager (PIM) information, an email message, a fax, or a request for a voice
connection.
The order in which the bearer services are tried may be customized. The
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present invention can be implemented such that the bearer services are always
attempted in a particular order based on the subscriber's or service
provider's
preferences. Alternatively, a message delivery could be first attempted on the
bearer
service that the subscriber was most recently successfully contacted on.
Another
alternative implementation would track the success rate of message delivery
attempts
on the various bearer services and attempt message delivery on the bearer
services in
an order based on this previous success rate. For example, if the subscriber
was
reached 60% of the time on bearer A, 10% of the time on bearer B, and 30% of
the
time on bearer C, the order in which the bearer services would be attempted
would be
A, C, B.
The bearer services could include any digital or analog method used to
communicate with wireless devices including Cellular Digital Packet Data
(CDPD),
IS-130/135, and Generic UDP Transport Service (GUTS) over IS-136. The bearer
services could also be satellite or ground based.
The wireless communicator is not limited to cellular telephones, but may be
any wireless communication device including pagers, Personal Digital
Assistants
(PDA), and portable computing devices.
Fig. 2 is a flow chart illustrating one possible implementation of the method
of
the present invention. A message delivery request that contains information
identifying the subscriber or wireless device to be contacted is received by a
server
providing the service of the present invention (step 201 ). The server uses
the
identifying information in the request to retrieve a corresponding list of
bearer
services from a database (step 202). The server then selects the first bearer
service
from the list and transmits a message delivery request via that bearer service
(step
203). The server then waits a predetermined amount of time for a response to
the
message delivery request (step 204). If a response is received the server
completes the
delivery between the original requestor and the wireless device (step 205,
206). If no
response is received the server then checks to see if a message delivery has
been
attempted on all the bearer services (step 207). If all the bearer services
have been
tried then the server stores the message delivery request for transmission
later (step
209). If not, then the server transmits a message delivery request on the next
bearer
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service and repeats the process (step 208).
The present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described. It
is expected that those skilled in the art will be able to devise other
implementations
that embody the principles of the present invention and remain within its
scope.
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